Sympathy for the Devil
by Helen Fayle
Summary: A series of Drabble Challenge responses first posted on ADWC late 2003early 2004... some knowledge of the books from the BBC around that time, and the Book of the War by Lawrence Miles would be a distinct advantage...! A silly little exercise, but fun to


Challenge Drabbles: Sympathy for the Devil By Helen Fayle Nominations: Best Series or Arc, Best Drabble (see individual sections), Best Character Sarah-Jane Smith, The Master

1. "That forsaken dies..."

There are some things a bullet-proof vest won't stop.

They wanted to keep me in hospital for a couple of days, and I wasn't up to arguing. After all, it wasn't as though I had a job to go back to. He'd seen to that. My reputation was in worse shape than my ribcage.

The nurse brought the flowers: a huge bouquet of latifolia, roses, Japanese lilies. 'Gorgeous, aren't they?' she fussed.

'It's the least he could do,' I snapped.

Then I saw the card. A simple enough design: a bird of prey, wings outstretched to form a stylised "M".

2. A handful of Silver... (Nominated)

The flowers sat on the bedside table, a colourful but silent accusation.

'They were hand delivered,' said the nurse. 'Such a gentleman. Very handsome.'

'She flatters me.'

He didn't wait to be invited, just walked in and sat down. A study in elegance, grey suit, that silver bird-of-prey tiepin the only ornamentation. 'Commiserations. It seems we both picked our friends unwisely, my dear, doesn't it?'

I couldn't speak.

'He sold me out for a principle - but you - he used you. So much for friendship.'

'I made the final choice, not him.'

He just looked at me pityingly, and said nothing.

3. Beggars ride. (Nominated)

South Croydon. Home.

Somehow, I couldn't settle. Kept waiting for a knock at the door, a wheezing, groaning sound from the patio. Anything.

As long as the first thing he said was "I'm sorry."

Instead, he turned up again. Thirty bad pennies worth of trouble.

'I wish you'd go away,' I snapped. He just smiled, filling the doorway.

'Do you?'

No. And he knew it. Damn him. When he isn't trying to take over the world, he's not bad company, really.

'If wishes were horses-' I sighed. He tossed his car keys to me.

'Will an Aston Martin Vantage do?'

4. Saturday Night at the Movies (Nominated, twice by mistake: this was the "Piracy" drabble!)

When a time-lord suggests a date at the pictures, expect something a bit better than the latest George Clooney.

Getting himself mistaken for one of the stars when we arrived at the premiere of "Captain Blood" however, was not what he'd expected.

'It's not even that close a resemblance,' he'd muttered, after we'd run the gauntlet.

Still, it did get me Errol Flynn's autograph.

'If you were Olivia de Havilland,' he asked later. 'Would you have picked Blood - or Levasseur?'

'Unfair question!' I laughed. 'The heroine never picks the villain.'

'Even if she's not sure which is which?' he asked.

5. Shadows of the Past (Nominated)

Twin suns rose over the horizon, casting hazy double shadows on the satiny, lilac coloured grass of the hilltop. A warm, summer day beginning on a new planet. Our shadows were thrown out behind us, one set twinned, overlapping, the other diverging.

'This is what I miss, I think. The adventure.'

'You miss the danger,' he said softly. 'It's in your blood.'

I couldn't deny it.

'It's so perfect here.'

'It was,' he replied.

'Where are we?'

'Aurian. A small planet in the Traken Union. In a few years, all of this will be gone forever.'

'What happened?'

'I did.'

6. Codes of Honour.

'Why?'

'Why what? Why become what I did? You know the answer to that by now.'

'Pathological control freak with psychopathic tendencies,' I quipped 'According to UNIT's records from your prison stays, any way. No. Why this? Why me?'

'He was my best friend too, once,' he replied.

'Not enough.'

'Even a ronin has some code,' he replied. 'I have mine, for what it's worth.'

'You're not Japanese.'

'No. Worse: Gallifreyan. Even more uptight and rigidly traditional.' He smiled, warmly. 'I remember the words "you can't just leave him there."'

So did I. 'That's not much.'

'It was a start.'

7. Gifts (Nominated)

'I see he remembered your birthday.' He put the little white squares on the table. 'Will you use them?'

'I don't know.'

'It's a start,' he replied a little smugly. I sighed.

'You still treat it as some kind of competition!'

That engaging, lopsided smile. 'Isn't it?'

'I'm not going to be pulled apart by the two of you like some toy you refuse to share.'

'Aren't you going to open it?'

I tore the paper off and opened the box. A shower of black pieces fell onto the table. Enough remained to tell what the device had once been.

8. A Fire in the Soul.

'Nightmares. In that hour before dawn. Lying there, wondering if I could have said or done anything differently. Seeing myself walking out of the TARDIS, that ridiculous stuffed owl under my arm. Yet, deep down, feeling relieved, and guilty for feeling it.'

'I still feel the fire. The first time, the body trapped, unable to regenerate. The second - searing every nerve ending. But the worst thing - the very worst - was reaching out my hand and seeing his face, just watching, blankly, as if astonished that I would think for one moment I had the right to ask for his help.'

9. From a whisper to a squeak... (Nominated as "Scream")

When a hand landed on my shoulder I screamed, and turned.

'You!'

There's never any mistaking the aristocratic profile of this current incarnation.

'Did you realise you don't scream, so much as let out a little squeak?' he asked.

'What are you doing here?' Bullets whizzed over our heads and he pulled me to the muddy ground behind a burned out car.

'Starting a war. You?'

'Covering it.' I looked over the bonnet. 'I think they want to finish it!'

I never heard the bullet, just my own scream and the rush of the ground coming up to meet me.

10. Deadly Sins 1 of 7 - Anger

'I'm not angry.' I carried on packing, my left arm still in a sling. He took my laptop out of my hands.

'Yes you are.'

I slammed the suitcase lid. 'Well yes, maybe I am.'

'I'm sorry. Sarah -'

'For getting me shot?' I slapped him as hard as I could. 'That's not why.'

He rubbed his cheek.

'I'm angry at myself, for liking you. And I'm mad at you because you just won't give up. You still think the universe is yours to use as you see fit. We're not toys. We break, and we can't always be fixed.'

11. Deadly Sins 2 of 7 - Avarice

He lifted the heavy diamond necklace from my hands, and placed it around my neck. 'They say it was made for a courtesan in Montmartre at the turn of the century. The Duke who commissioned it died in the trenches in your "Great War". The girl rejected him for a penniless writer, but died soon after. A tragic piece, but worth over two million pounds.'

'It's beautiful.' I stroked the diamonds, almost afraid to touch them. 'It's too much.'

'A small price to pay,' he murmured into my ear.

The ornate necklace settled onto my collarbone like a lead weight.

12. Deadly Sins 3 of 7 - Envy.

'I think there's a touch of the green-eyed monster in this damn rivalry, somewhere,' I accused the Master once.

'You think I'm jealous?' he sneered. 'Of the Doctor?'

But there was a flicker of humour in those gold flecked eyes, for once. As if he enjoyed playing the part he'd chosen for himself.

'My dear, he has nothing that I'd want.'

For the first time in these occasional interludes and conversations, I felt that he was lying to me.

That he wanted me to know it.

Yet I had a feeling I'd also misjudged him, even knowing that he lied.

13. Deadly Sins 4 of 7 - Gluttony

'Remember what kind of world it is out there.' The Master leaned over the side of the bridge and threw a leg of lamb in. Within seconds, the fish below had stripped it in their frenzy. 'Not everything that wants to eat you analyses the nuances of its behaviour. Most of the time, it's kill or be killed.'

'Is that any excuse for doing the same?'

He shrugged. 'Nature red in tooth and claw. You could tell them,' he pointed at the piranha pool, 'but do you really think they'll listen?'

'Would you?' I asked. 'For us, that's no excuse.'

14. Cardinal Virtues 1 of 7 - Faith

Dancing with the devil, in the moonlight. Vienna. 1809. Pity I couldn't take time to interview Prince Metternich. Ah. They don't make scandals like they used to.

'You see?' said the devil. 'Even your own people respect strength, and power. Decisive action. Control.'

'Look on my works, ye mighty,' I quoted.

'Then what endures?' he scoffed mockingly. I placed my hands on his hearts.

'Whatever remains to hold onto when all else fails. As it must, without love. In the end, all we can believe in is what comes from within, and only then when we look to each other.'

15. Deadly Sins 5 of 7 - Lust

Gravel on the long drive crunching underfoot, and a polite "goodnight" at the front door.

A simple kiss on the cheek, such a small gesture.

Barriers that neither of us will cross.

And a hand, gloveless, laid on my cheek, cool skin that burns where it touches. Long fingers that trace the line of my cheekbone so gently, yet leaving a trail of fire in their wake.

He's so damn tall, but I'm standing on the top step.

That kiss: Tentative, yet quickly awakening one hunger I didn't know I could feel.

And another I wasn't sure I could survive.

16. Cardinal Virtues 2 of 7 - Hope

'You still struggle against what you feel,' he said. Lying there. Close. Not touching.

'Because I can't justify sympathy for the devil.'

'And yet.' His voice was mocking, the eyes not.

...an archangel ruin'd...

And it was to the windows of the soul, not the words, that I listened.

Searching for signs, praying for traces of a conscience in residence.

Hope. The last ill shut inside Pandora's box.

A virtue?

Or the last damning evil that keeps us on a hopeless path when we are already lost? That keeps us from taking action because maybe... just maybe...

There's a chance.

17. Deadly Sins 6 of 7 - Pride

'Why,' asked the devil, in one conversation, 'would I ever want to be less than I am?'

'I didn't say less. I said "different".'

The Master smirked. 'My powers surpass those of most of my kind, and all of yours. Even your precious Doctor. Who better then to decide what they will not? To make the choices they shy from?'

'Is that it? You think you're so superior to everyone else? If that's the case you have a greater responsibility, not a greater right to act as you see fit.'

He wouldn't meet my gaze.

'You talk utopia,' he sneered.

18. Cardinal Virtues - 3 of 7 Charity

'Here's a classic example,' he said, stopping me from fishing in my purse for some change. 'You call it charity, yet how many are just hustlers? Or will take your generous donations straight to a drug dealer or a bar?'

I shrugged off his gloved hand and tossed the coins. 'So you'd walk on by, rather than reach out a hand?'

'It's like filling a leaky bucket - the more water you pour in to fill it, the bigger the hole gets.'

'So what happened? You ran out of water?'

'The universe,' he said wearily, 'is too much for one man.'

19. Deadly Sins 7 of 7 - Sloth

'No, absolutely not.' I pulled the covers over my head, put they were yanked back. 'Gerroff. It's Sunday, I'm just back from New York and I'm knackered.'

'My dear Sarah,' my personal nemesis purred. 'Are you telling me that given a quite lovely summer's day, you'd rather stay in bed and sleep?'

I peered blearily over the edge of the duvet. 'Yes.' I pulled it back over my head. I couldn't stifle a yawn. 'Honestly, out of all the vices you've revelled in over the years-'

A bearded face peeked at me, surprisingly mischievous. 'That's one sin I don't do.'

20. Cardinal Virtues 4 of 7 - Justice

'Justice?' the Master scoffed. It was going to be one of those conversations. 'My dear Sarah, it's a null concept. Revenge, Retribution - these are what lies at the heart of any system.'

I started to argue, but he continued, forcefully: 'A man kills another, you incarcerate him as punishment. He plucks out your eye, you take his. In retribution. Rehabilitation, you ask?' He laughed. 'Impose your values on another and force him to conform? You call that virtuous?' He smiled coldly. 'All societies justify their acts against those who break their rules and call it "justice". I call it "Hypocrisy".

21. Barren Harvest

Brendan asked me to be godmother to his daughter. A bitter-sweet honour.

For a woman who can have no children.

I would never know if it was due to something I endured, or something the Doctor did to me - but holding my niece in my arms, I felt as though something precious had been taken away: My right to make a free choice. It cost me more than one relationship, into the bargain.

'Do you renounce the devil and all his works?' asked the vicar: the age old ritual.

Now there's a question and a half.

Yes.

Present company excepted.

22. Cardinal Virtues 5 of 7 - Temperance

There had to be a conflict, sooner or later. He pulled the shot at the last minute, and it passed over my head. My blood ran cold at the near miss.

'Never creep up on me like that,' he thundered, looking strangely pale. 'Stay out of my way, Sarah.'

I didn't budge. 'No. Get out,' I told the Colonel. He didn't need to be told twice. 'Just for once, can't you stop this - pointless - pursuit of power? A little self-restraint isn't beyond you, surely?'

I'm stubborn, but so's he. Playing with fire, I faced being burned.

He lowered the gun.

23. Cardinal Virtues 6 of 7 - Prudence

The Universe has a strong sense of the ironic. When I turned and saw her standing there, I only just pulled the shot at the last second. History so close to repeating itself.

Ailla. Sarah.

I lowered the gun and put it to one side.

Placing temptation out of reach.

Killing becomes so easy, after a time. How much simpler to remove someone who forces you to examine the part of yourself you don't want to face, than to turn and face what you have become?

History can repeat.

Or not.

Facing the consequences of a poor choice, at last.

24. Cardinal Virtues 7 of 7 - Fortitude

The dream is always the same. He looks down from a wall of pain, onto the faces of those below. Those who would call themselves his peers. Lords of Time.

By Presidential order, he hangs, an object, abject lesson. He's there only because he tried to warn them of the coming storm.

Crucified for their sake, for the sake of all, he has no choice but to die, or to suffer.

If nothing else gives him strength, it's the knowledge that he has taken up the burden that another dared not.

Even in dreams, for the first time, this matters.

25: Rex Bellorum, Rex Futuresque (Redemption)

'You can't know -'

'I've seen it, over and over. My people destroyed, their history burned from the pages of time. Changed and twisted into an abomination. And you know as well as I, that he won't save them. The price of failure or success is a damnation too far for a hero.'

He took my hand, kissed it.

'What's coming is something even I cannot allow to be. Thanks to you.'

'Wait. Mast-'

He stopped me. 'My name is Koschei.' He laughed sadly. 'They will give me a new title in its place, but someone should remember.'

-- 


End file.
